Pay-Per-View

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I’m not here to write whether the expert and crowd favorite Manny Pacquiao really won over the relatively unknown to Filipino, Timothy Bradley Jr., neither will I jump in and join the cry of rigging, and/or who really had the most number of hits, but I can honestly say, that Bradley’s winning over Pacquiao, albeit controversial, is really a lesson in humility.

Before anything else, I’m not anti-Pacquiao, but neither am I fan. As a Taoist – Buddhist, I don’t believe and follow any violent sport like boxing, which intentionally and literally hurts a person for the other to win. I hope that me fellow Filipinos won’t think that I’m being anti-Filipino by posting this post, but I believe that there is something that we all have to learn from the fight and the eventual loss of Pacquiao.

Before anything else, I would like to admit that this is something that didn’t follow the whole Pacquiao – Bradley craze right when it started, but what I have seen so far is that Bradley has always maintained a humble stance and Pacquiao or his camp has always maintained a slightly confident, if not over-confident, stance. This may be because Bradley is the underdog, and Pacquiao is the ‘people’s champ’ and international favorite, but is this enough for one to be somewhat boastful and over confident.

In interviews, you’ll always see that Pacquiao and or his camp has downplayed Timothy Bradley’s capability, while Bradley always focuses on his own training rather than criticizing the other camp.

A few days before the fight, Bradley, to indicate how hard he was working for this fight, said that his training has been like hell. Pacquiao, on the other hand, said that his training has been like heaven. It was said in such a manner that would lead one to believe that it’s just a routine training for him and that he is quite enjoying and at ‘home’ with that kind of training.

On the day of the actual fight, those who have pay – per – view will be able to attest that Pacquiao made everybody wait until he was ready to come out for the fight. When I say everybody, I’m not just referring to his staff but also Bradley, Bradley’s camp, the judges, the people who in the arena, the people who paid pay-per-view to watch the fight. He made them wait for thirty minutes…the reason? He was still watching the Miami Heat and Boston Celtics Eastern Playoff!

When interviewed about waiting for Pacquiao, Bradley humbly said that it’s okay and that they’ll wait and just be ready once Pacquiao comes out. They even added that they don’t mind waiting for Pacquiao even if it takes him 2 hours before he comes out.

I will not attempt to judge both of their characters base on this one incident, but, at that very moment, one can see the difference in attitude. One is humble, the other proud. At the end of the game, the other remained humble, the other though humbled, continued to make ‘proud’ remarks.

We may be a winner, but that doesn’t give us the right to have a bad attitude.